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Hello, this is Matt from the Explorers podcast.

I want to invite you to join me on the voyages and journeys of the most famous explorers in the history of the world.

These are the thrilling and captivating stories of Vigllan, Shackleton, Lewis, and Clark,

and so many other famous, and not so famous, adventures from throughout history.

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That's the Explorers Podcast.

Music After almost four months at sea, on December 13th at roughly 6.17 a.m., the Admiral

Graf's Bay opened fire on British warships for the first time. The ships had first sighted

one another a few minutes earlier,

and in the intervening 17 minutes aboard the Graf's Bay, orders had been sent out to get the

engines going to full speed and to start working on firing solutions. At that moment, the ships

were more than 15,000 meters distant from one another, so determining the exact angle and elevation

for the guns

was not a trivial matter. The Graf's Bay had another problem. As the ship approached top

speed, the vibration caused throughout the ship caused a screw to loosen in the forward turret.

It was one of the screws that controlled the motors that allowed the turret to move.

This meant that at least at the beginning of the engagement that was to follow, the front

turret, fully 50% of the Grafspace firepower, because it only had two turrets, could only

fire on the enemy ship if the ship turned to starboard, which was a serious problem.

Meanwhile, on board the British cruisers, efforts were being made to determine

what exactly the ship was that was bearing down on them. They would be able to verify its identity

...